Originally I'm from Arnold but I grew up on this park, as most real Nottingham people do. As a boy I came here often with my grandmother, who lived just around the corner from the gates. I still live a five-minute walk away and my own children know every path, every cedar, every stone statue on the terrace.
When I photograph a wedding at Wollaton Hall, I am not arriving at an unfamiliar place and working out the angles. I already know where I stand.
The Hall sits at the top of one of the finest hilltops in England. The ceremony room has a carved stone interior with real drama. Its high vaulted ceiling and deep-set windows let in the light high up the walls. It really does reward photographers who understand how to use what is already there.
The formal gardens ask for something different. Their scale is extraordinary. Getting a great photograph here means committing to it rather than treating it as backdrop.
And then there is the roof. Four hundred years of Elizabethan architecture laid out beneath a Nottinghamshire sky. It's a long climb up a tight spiral staircase but it's worth every step. It's definitely worth planning for.
Andy is a London lad and a West Ham fan for his sins so he was a long way from home. Amy had grown up in Nottingham and knew this park the same way I did. There is something particular about a Wollaton Hall wedding when one of you genuinely belongs to the place. It changes what the day means.
By the time the light shifted in the late afternoon, we were on the roof. The ceremony had been perfect. The walk to the Camilla House was great. But it was up there, among the chimneys and the statues, with all of that sky, where the day found its best photographs.
I have been walking its grounds since I was a child. Tell me about your day and I will be honest with you from the first reply.
Tell me about your wedding